66 a deeper light over the world than his poetic powers could depict. His niece, Miss Weld, tells of his talking in the same natural way as a child would express his delight at his father making him his companion: 'God is with us now on this down as we two are walking together just as truly as Christ was with the two disciples on the way to Emmaus: we cannot see Him, but He, the Father and the Saviour and the Spirit, is nearer, perhaps, now than then to those who are not afraid to believe the words of the Apostles about the actual and real presence of God and His Christ with all who yearn for it.' I said I thought such a near, actual presence would be awful to most people. He answered, Surely the love of God takes away and makes us forget all our fear. I should be sorely afraid to live my life without God's presence; but to feel that He is by my side now just as much as you are, that is the very joy of my heart.' I looked on Tennyson as he spoke, and the glory of God rested upon his face, and I felt that the presence of the Most High had indeed overshadowed him." His poetic genius clothed the world in beauty; his faith transfigured it as the dwelling-place of Jehovah, even as the sun glorifies the thin cloud through which it shines. There is no need to have the angels on the ladder of vision to one who meets with his Maker at the foot of it. XIV INCENTIVES FROM PERSONAL M ASSOCIATIONS ORE influential than the association of places is that of the environment of souls. Character is exceedingly malleable; as iron is shaped by rollers and hammers, so are we by the pressure of companionships. The gentle touches of friends are like the slight hammer strokes of the jeweler chasing or embossing metal. The most exquisite traits, especially the graces of disposition and manner, are very largely acquired through the influence of refined people we are accustomed to meet. Great temptations or the inducements to better life, such as come upon us at critical times, and result in our falling or reformation, are like the heavy weights which double up the iron or flatten it out, for they leave us something different from what we would have been without these associations. There are persons who are but slightly changed by others. They persist in their individuality, and boast of their independence of others' opinions and conduct. They are not nec essarily the stronger characters for all that they resist social influences. They may be compared rather to cast iron, which has only a brittle hardness. It does not readily dent or bend, but it will break. When the carbon is driven out of the cast iron it acquires the malleable toughness, that tensile strength which is more enduring under strain. Moral carbon is the spirit of selfassertion, self-satisfaction, self-conceit, an element of hardness, yet of weakness. The strongest men and women confess their indebtedness to others. An ancient philosopher said to another, "I am always strong when I am near you." Lord Lawrence, Governor General of India, was one of the most imperial characters of modern times. He never failed, in speaking of the forces and circumstances that had the greatest molding influence upon him, to tell of his school days at Londonderry, the instructors and especially the young men he there met. His biographer says, "Strange that a small school in the North of Ireland should have contained, within a period of a few years only, those who were to do such good service to the state in war and in peace as Lord Gough, the bravest of soldiers and the most reckless of generals, the man who claimed the most doubtful victories at Chillianwallah and gained a crowning one at Gujerat: as George Lawrence, the lion-hearted and chivalric prisoner of Afghan and Sikh: as |